A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum Vegetable Gardening novice at work here

HI, I am a new member, and my daughter and I have rented a 36 acre property in Victor Harbor, South Australia. We are attempting to grow our own organic vegies, but the soil here is pure sand, so we have brought in some loam and put grape finings in as well, as we were told these will improve the water retention. However, it wasn't good advice. We have a very dry soil, that looks great on the surface, but underneath it is as dry as old bones. Our first season vegies are poor, good starter growth but the fruit is small, if any, and the plant just didn't seem to thrive, no matter how much fertiliser (natural stuff) we applied. I was thinking a bit of lime perhaps, or some dolomite. What do you all reckon is lacking in the soil, apart from the water retention? I have been digging in the soil as I am watering to make sure the water gets to the roots. Hope someone can help, we are quite disheartened about our first crop. Cheers, and Happy New Year to you all.

Welcome, Gayle.
I have similar soil in my desert area of California. Very sandy and water drains right past the roots before it can do much good.
I do have a question, are you just growing vegetable plots or are you farming the whole 36 acres?
The answer either way is still the same. You will need a lot of soil amendments deep enough to retain moisture through the whole root system and maybe a little deeper than too. It usually takes a lot of adding and digging. Mine have been years in the making and need constant additions yearly.
So all of the mulching material you can lay your hands on and work into each plot will help.
Sometimes it is easy to get the material. Are there any smaller dairies nearby? They will sometimes give you manure for free. I could get it dumped here by the huge double truckloads but getting it into place and worked in is the hard part.
But if you keep adding any and nearly all natural materials your vegetables should improve over the years as the water retention does.
Before adding any lime or other things like, have your soil tested to see what may be lacking besides water.

One suggestion would be what's come to be called "lasagne gardening." The basic idea is to build raised beds of whatever sort, and layer organic material on top of the soil you have. Many folks start with cardboard at the bottom. And if you search around, you'll see that there are lots of recipes for the layering (what sort of stuff to put where) but again, the idea is not to amend your soil, but to build up good soil on top of it.

Good luck!

reasonable advice, gayle, but if you don't respond, you won't continue to get advice, please do tell us if you come back.

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